Monday, January 20 2014 Monday of the Second Week in Ordinary Time

First Reading
1 Samuel 15:16-23

Samuel said to Saul:
“Stop! Let me tell you what the LORD said to me last night.”
Saul replied, “Speak!”
Samuel then said: “Though little in your own esteem,
are you not leader of the tribes of Israel?
The LORD anointed you king of Israel and sent you on a mission, saying,
‘Go and put the sinful Amalekites under a ban of destruction.
Fight against them until you have exterminated them.’
Why then have you disobeyed the LORD?
You have pounced on the spoil, thus displeasing the LORD.”
Saul answered Samuel: “I did indeed obey the LORD
and fulfill the mission on which the LORD sent me.
I have brought back Agag, and I have destroyed Amalek under the ban.
But from the spoil the men took sheep and oxen,
the best of what had been banned,
to sacrifice to the LORD their God in Gilgal.”
But Samuel said:
“Does the LORD so delight in burnt offerings and sacrifices
as in obedience to the command of the LORD?
Obedience is better than sacrifice,
and submission than the fat of rams.
For a sin like divination is rebellion,
and presumption is the crime of idolatry.
Because you have rejected the command of the LORD,
he, too, has rejected you as ruler.”

Responsorial Psalm
Psalm 50:8-9, 16bc-17, 21 and 23

R. (23b) To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Not for your sacrifices do I rebuke you,
for your burnt offerings are before me always.
I take from your house no bullock,
no goats out of your fold.”

R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“Why do you recite my statutes,
and profess my covenant with your mouth,
Though you hate discipline
and cast my words behind you?”

R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

“When you do these things, shall I be deaf to it?
Or do you think that I am like yourself?
I will correct you by drawing them up before your eyes.
He that offers praise as a sacrifice glorifies me;
and to him that goes the right way I will show the salvation of God.”

R. To the upright I will show the saving power of God.

Gospel
Mark 2:18-22

The disciples of John and of the Pharisees were accustomed to fast.
People came to Jesus and objected,
“Why do the disciples of John and the disciples of the Pharisees fast,
but your disciples do not fast?”
Jesus answered them,
“Can the wedding guests fast while the bridegroom is with them?
As long as they have the bridegroom with them they cannot fast.
But the days will come when the bridegroom is taken away from them,
and then they will fast on that day.
No one sews a piece of unshrunken cloth on an old cloak.
If he does, its fullness pulls away,
the new from the old, and the tear gets worse.
Likewise, no one pours new wine into old wineskins.
Otherwise, the wine will burst the skins,
and both the wine and the skins are ruined.
Rather, new wine is poured into fresh wineskins.”

REFLECTION
by
One Bread, One Body - Reflection for January 20, 2014

DOWNRIGHT UPRIGHT

"To the upright man I will show how God can save." –Psalm 50:23, JB

Various people came to Jesus with the objection that His disciples did not fast, while the Pharisees and John the Baptizer did fast (Mk 2:18). John and the Pharisees were upright men, and Jesus kept the promise of Psalm 50:23 by showing them the salvation of God. Throughout the Gospel, Jesus spends time with the upright, teaching them and showing them God's heart and way of salvation (e.g Lk 7:36ff; 11:37ff; 14:1ff).

On Calvary, Jesus especially showed God's salvation to the upright in His passion, crucifixion, suffering, death, and resurrection. Did the upright members of the Sanhedrin and the upright Pharisees accept God's salvation? Some upright people who were shown the salvation of God accepted it (Acts 26:5ff; Jn 3:1). Others were scandalized by God's offer of salvation of sinners and rejected it (see Jn 12:42).

Are you upright? Praise Jesus if you are! In an increasingly immoral culture, upright men and women are much needed. The true upright person will make an honest assessment of God's generous offer of salvation and their own weakness in comparison to the uprightness of God. The question then becomes, can a person remain upright after having been shown the salvation of God and rejecting it? "Let anyone who thinks he is standing upright watch out lest he fall!" (1 Cor 10:12) Our hope is not in our own righteousness but the righteousness and the mercy of Jesus.

PRAYER:  Father, may I never prefer the praises of people to Your glory (Jn 12:43).

PROMISE:  "Obedience is better than sacrifice." –1 Sm 15:22

PRAISE:  St. Sebastian was healed and restored from one attempted execution to confront the emperor again, giving a double witness to his faith in Jesus.